ORLANDO, FLA.—Back in 2004, we installed
three Vinten (now Vinten Radamec)
SP-2000 robotic pedestals mounted with
AutoCam HS-2010 Series robotic pan-and-tilt
heads. We also installed an AutoCam HS-
105P robotic pan-and-tilt head mounted
on a manual pedestal. All four cameras are
operated fully robotically.

When we were evaluating robotic cameras
10 years ago, what put the Vinten AutoCam
system over the top was that it allowed
us to have separate control points. If
one pedestal failed, the rest of the system
could continue operating.

Originally we hooked the ACS200 Series
controller to our Sony ELC automation
system and let the Sony package operate
our robotic cameras. However, we
preferred to incorporate on-air camera
moves, such as zooms or trucks, and now
assign a robotics operator for each of our
newscasts.

IT’S REALLY A CHESS GAME
Learning to run the Vinten Radamec
system turned out to be very easy for new
operators. I like to compare learning to
operate our robotic cameras to learning
chess—you need to know when you can
move a specific camera, and what direction
it can safely travel in.

We normally give a new trainee a full
week of training with someone looking
over their shoulder. The biggest challenge
is getting them to think and run the system
as though they were actually standing
behind the cameras. Pedestal collisions do
happen occasionally, and operators need
to know how to recover quickly from a
bumper hit.

We don’t have a “super user” per se; any
one of our operators can create and save
a new shot to the system. When a new
shot or move is requested, the operator
on duty will program it and rehearse it,
if possible.

For camera moves, we set the shot at
both ends of the move and let the control
system itself interpret the move between
points A and B. We don’t use the “motion”
feature, as it takes too long to use on our
timetable.

Since the robotics were installed,
we’ve used them every day for both
morning and afternoon slots. Even with a
two-hour news block in the morning, our
operators target the pedestals and make
sure everything’s running properly, then
we leave them in that mode for the next
two hours.

We don’t do as many on-air camera
moves in the morning as we do in our
other newscasts; however, we usually open
with a little pedestal move—or a zoom—
and some little left-to-right trucks during
the show. Our viewers have told us they
like seeing these moves.

We initially used heavy studio-style Ikegami
cameras with box lenses, but about a
year ago these were replaced with Ikegami
ENG-style cameras and lenses. Except for
the need to add some weight at the rear of
the cameras to counterbalance our prompters,
everything continues to work the same
as with the smaller cameras, just like it has
ever since we first installed the system.

Rich Byrnes is the assistant production
manager at WKMG-TV. He may be
contacted atrbyrnes@wkmg.com.